The invention concerns a combat vehicle with a driver's cab mounted on its chassis along with a weapon incorporating a rocket launcher. The rocket launcher rests on a carriage and is elevated and leveled by electrically powered mechanisms between it and the carriage. The carriage pivots in azimuth on an intermediate structure that rotates on a collar on the chassis. The invention also concerns a system for loading the vehicle onto aircraft.
There is a drawback to combat vehicles of this type. The vehicle and the launcher together are too heavy for a conventional aircraft to carry, and it can accordingly not be shipped rapidly to remote destinations.
Attempts have been made to reduce weight by removing the rocket launcher and shipping it separately from the vehicle. There are, however, two substantial drawbacks to this approach. First, the rocket launcher is considerably lighter than the vehicle, so that the weight is not evenly divided. Second, removing the rocket launcher is complicated, even more so because, since the elevating-and-leveling mechanisms must be disconnected, the vehicle and launcher and its elevating-and-leveling mechanisms need to be reassembled and recalibrated on arrival, which takes considerable time and labor.